Win the hanging king on c7
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The tactical motive
Hanging piece: your opponent left a piece undefended — take it.
Difficulty 2449 ShuffleRating — expert level — few solve it at first try.
Black to move — find the best continuation
How to recognize this tactic
A hanging piece is one that is attacked and not defended, or defended too few times. Count attackers against defenders on each enemy unit; where attackers win, take it — often with an in-between move or a check to gain the extra tempo.
General method: before you move, list the forcing candidates — every check, every capture, every direct threat — and calculate those first. The solution to a tactic is almost always among them.
Position on the board
White: king d3, rook c7, bishop c6, pawn c2 e4 a6.
Black: king c8, rook h2, bishop d4, pawn g3 c5 h5.
6 white and 6 black pieces are on the board; the puzzle position arises after move 35.
The position in numbers
Material is level — 11 points of pieces on each side (pawn = 1, knight and bishop = 3, rook = 5, queen = 9).
The white king stands on d3, the black king on c8.
It is Black to move on move 35, with 3 legal replies to weigh — only the line that keeps the advantage solves the puzzle. Black are in check right now, so every reply must answer the check.
White keeps 3 pawns, Black 3. Files fully open (no pawns of either colour): b, d, f — natural highways for the rooks and queen. Half-open for Black: a, e.
The Black king has 3 empty squares to step to right now — the fewer they are, the closer a mating net.
Solution & explanation
Main line
35... Kxc7 36. a7 c4+ 37. Kxd4 g2
Why it works
- Great move! king to c7 keeps the pressure (+6.3).
- Well found: pawn to c4 (+7.3).
- Strong! pawn to g2 is the sharp choice (+7.1).
- You win decisive material (+7.1).
- If instead a7, then c4+ and you win the rook.
Move by move
- 35… Kxc7 — king to c7 (capture)
- 36. a7 — pawn to a7
- c4+ — pawn to c4 with check
- 37. Kxd4 — king to d4 (capture)
- g2 — pawn to g2
Types in this puzzle
Winning blow
Find the strike that wins material by force.
A winning blow is a forced material gain that does not fit a single textbook motif. The general tactical recipe applies: spot loose pieces, an awkwardly placed king, overloaded lines. Go through the forcing moves in order of violence — checks, captures, threats — because most combinations start with one of them. Do not judge by feel: calculate the concrete line until the outcome is beyond doubt.
Only move
Everything else loses — find the only move that holds.
An only move is a position where everything loses except one single continuation. You cannot play "by hand" here: run through fundamentally different defenses — run away, block, trade, counterattack — and discard the ones that fail. The hallmark of these puzzles is that the obvious moves lose quickly while the solution often looks strange. First understand exactly what the threat is — then the one saving move reveals itself.
Passed pawn
Nothing can stop the passer — escort it to the last rank.
A passed pawn has no enemy pawns in front of it or on the neighboring files: only pieces can stop it. Check who can blockade the pawn or catch it with the king — if nobody can, the pawn is worth a whole piece. Push the passer with your pieces supporting it, and put your rook behind it. The beginner's mistake is shoving the pawn forward unprotected, straight into a capture.
Provenance
Derived from the Lichess puzzle database (CC0).
Pack 015
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